


Ghosts Can't Die

by yaoi_yaoieverywhere



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Confidence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Happy Ending, Short One Shot, Soul stuff, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 03:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5189825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaoi_yaoieverywhere/pseuds/yaoi_yaoieverywhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Countless resets, and always the same end. The beginning.</p><p>In the middle of this new playthrough, Frisk finally decides to tell someone how much they miss home. But... Not Sans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts Can't Die

**Author's Note:**

> Made it through more of Undertale and BOY DO I FEEL SAD HAAHA.
> 
> I've always had this strange connection with Blooky- beyond the music and depression. There's just something about that ghost that made me write this...

Countless resets, and always the same end. The beginning.

Frisk is tired of being dragged back. Whether they are the one in control or... not. But mostly, they are scared.

Is it too much to want to go Home? The one Toriel promised on the surface that would have cinnamon butterscotch pie, sunshine, and friends? The one this Game promised but never gave. They called it a Game ironically, because they'd played games something like this before, but ones where the only option was to fight. Where the only life the hero could live was in slaughter. But they never remembered while Frisk was left with everything churning in their head, learning so little new, older in mind but not growing smarter or bigger or stronger.

In the middle of this new playthrough, Frisk finally decides to tell someone how much they miss home. But... Not Sans.

Sans knows. Of course he does. Frisk knows this very well, and cannot imagine burdening him further than having to wake up each time in his underground bed and perfect his song and dance. Never deviating. Not without reason...

So this time, as they stand in front of Asgore, and he asks them to go back and finish what they must- they take the long path to Napstablook's house.

Waterfall... Might be Frisk's favorite place.

They knock on Napstablook's door and let themselves in after a few moments. He is there of course. Right where he needs to be.

"Napstablook," they say, looking into his too big eyes, "I want to go home."

"I... I guess you have to defeat Asgore then... Oh no..."

"No, Napstablook. That won't get me home."

"What do you mean... Oh, I should know this, shouldn't I? I'm sorry-"

"You wouldn't know because no one else knows. It's okay... I just wanted to talk about it, and then lie on the ground to feel like garbage. Okay?"

"We can do that... if you really wanna..."

"Thank you, Napstablook." Frisk takes a shaky breath in, and feels the tears forming in the corners of their eyes. "I'm stuck in this... loop. I don't know what else to call it? Everytime I reach an 'ending' I get forced back to when I'd fallen down here. No matter how I acted, who I spared, who I killed... Who Chara killed. I'm stuck doing this day over and over, and I just want to go home to Toriel. Sometimes if I do everything just right I get the smallest taste of the life after all this and then it's gone. Just me in a pile of those darn yellow flowers... I hate them. Maybe if I could find a way to save Asriel this would end, but no matter what I do he's still left without a soul! I don't know what to do and I hate it so much! I miss the way human food tastes. I miss the other Humans. I just- why can't this Game let me be?"

Frisk sunk to the floor with shaking legs and tears falling down their face. Blooky hovered in front of them with visible concern as they tried to make sense of the words Frisk had uttered so wearily.

"Maybe it's because... You're sticking to a script?"

"H-huh?"

"My cousin Mettaton hangs out with Alphys, you know, and uh. She says the script can get things wrong sometimes and that people who like it don't have to take it. They can... Make their own path? When things go wrong? Oh, this isn't making much sense, is it? I'm sorry... B-but you should still keep going, I guess? Because you have a goal. Even I have a dream I work for."

Napstablook's speech lights a spark of new Determination inside Frisk's shuddering heart.

"...Okay."

"A-and I was just wondering how... how old you are?"

"I turn nine tomorrow. In uhm... the normal time. Not the weird loop thing."

"Then... Happy early birthday. I don't have anything besides a ghost sandwich and you can't eat that, b-but if we really make it to the surface to stay this time... I promise to make you a song. A song for the strongest, kindest, and most empathetic human that ever fell down to our home."

"Oh. Then... when we get to the surface, I'll help you get a SoundCloud. That way you can achieve your dream too!"

"I-if I can manage it." The two exchange wobbling grins, neither sure of their dreams. But they are determined.

///

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Asriel says again, and Frisk shakes their head this time.

Taking in a deep breath, they stare down at their bright red soul and shudder. Frisk grasps it gently with both hands. This is it. The only solution they could think of that might just work... And even if it doesn't- well, Frisk probably won't have to continue anymore. The heart makes a chiming noise as they grasp it firmly.

Asriel looks back and gapes at them, reaching out a paw as if to stop an atrocity at the sight before him.

"Wait, what are you do-"

And Frisk rips their soul in half in front of the child they had once abandon all hope of saving. 

Holding one half out with a trembling hand, Frisk smiles through the pain.

"Come with me," They say, blackness starting to crawl into the edges of their vision. "We can be determined and live together as family. I'd rather have half a soul... Than leave you here."

Asriel trembles- or perhaps that is just Frisk's legs losing balance under them- and makes a choked noise.

"Why?"

"Because I've tried everything else," Frisk whispers hoarsely, "But nothing else could really save you. Take it, Asriel. I offer it freely. And if it's not enough... Take the rest of my soul. End this cycle. And if I don't make it... Tell Napstablook I'm sorry."

Soft white fur brushes against Frisk's outstretched hand. They smile wider than they have since they'd come to the underground and then- there is black.

///

When they next wake, it is a surprise. 

The sun is high above them, and they can almost hear people in misery. There is crying, and bawling, and shaking, and oppressive silence. Familiar hands brush against their pulse points. A boney hand at their throat, a furry one at their left wrist, and a scaly smooth one at the right wrist. There is even something metal and chilled over their heart.

Frisk breathes in deep before hacking out a cough, and then there is real noise.

"Frisk, you're okay!"

"Darling, can you hear me?"

"Are you alright my child?"

"Geez kid, you almost gave me a heart attack. I don't even have a heart!"

"I'm going to ignore that horrid joke and ask the human to speak!"

"I told you they weren't dead!"

"Maybe we should allow the child to speak?"

Finally opening their eyes, Frisk squints up at their friends. Groping around for their soul, they trace the oddly clean cut divide. Raising their hand up brings silence. They then give a weak thumbs up. Asriel hiccups over a sob, practically throwing himself as them and crying over their repetitions of Thank You. Frisk knows the others are reacting too, but it's hard to see with a long fluffy and floppy ear in the way.

Everything is going to be okay. They've finally saved everyone...

"Uhm," That voice is distinctly Napstablook. Pushing themselves up, Frisk looks around until they see their ghost friend. "Happy Birthday, Frisk?"

The other monsters seem somewhat confused. Frisk lets out a slightly hysterical giggle.

"Thanks for remembering, Napstablook." 

"I-I wasn't expect it to be here so quickly... Oh no, my song isn't ready..."

"Wait a second! Human, today is your Birthday?" 

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell us?!"

"...I was busy?" They had told Papyrus, a couple of playthrough ago. Not that he would remember.

"Hmph. Very well. In any case, the day of our freedom is the same as Frisk's birthday! Amazing!"

"You must've been born under a bright star!"

"Like the sun, maybe."

"Sans!"

"Pfft!"

Maybe they had been, to have made it all this way. Asriel shifts off them, allowing them to rise and look down Mt. Ebbot with a breath of relief.

His furry paw entwines with theirs.

"You said we're family, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Does that mean... you'll live with us?"

"Of course. We're two halves of a whole now anyway. Couldn't be without you!"

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this undoubtedly won't be as well received as 'Expectations' was but I feel more satisfied with it. Because it's newer.
> 
> After this Frisk does lots of things! But, well, this is a oneshot. I don't actually go past where the canonical good end does. The irony.


End file.
